THE DECLINING BIRTH RATE 127 



It is unfortunate that the data collected by the Censuses of 

 1890, 1900 and 1910 on the relative fecundity of native and 

 foreign stocks have never been completely tabulated. The 

 Immigration Commission has made an analysis of a part of these 

 data from certain fairly representative regions of the country. 

 The returns used were taken from the Census of 1903. For 

 purposes of comparison a somewhat arbitrary measure of fecun- 

 dity was employed, namely, the number of children of women 

 who had been married from ten to twenty years. Of these there 

 were 78,432. These comprise women from various sections of the 

 country both urban and rural. The regions studied included the 

 state of Rhode Island, the cities Cleveland, 0., and Minneapolis, 

 48 mainly rural counties of Ohio, and 21 mainly rural counties 

 of Minnesota. In general the women of native white parentage 

 had 2.7 children, while those of foreign parentage had 4.4. The 

 women of foreign parentage were divided into 2 classes, (i) those 

 who migrated to this country, and (2) those both of whose parents 

 were immigrants, parents of mixed native and foreign blood not 

 being considered. Of the first class the average number of chil- 

 dren was 4.7, while that of the second was 3.9, the second genera- 

 tion of the foreign born showing a diminution of fecundity though 

 retaining a higher birth rate than the women of native American 

 stock. The percentage with no children was, foreign born first 

 generation, 5.3 per cent, foreign born second generation, 6.3 per 

 cent, native born white 13.1 per cent, negroes 20.5 per cent. 

 Notwithstanding the high percentage of childless wives among 

 the negroes, the average number of children, 3.1, was greater than 

 that of the native white American. Both native and foreign 

 women were found to be considerably more prolific in the rural 

 districts than in the cities. 



The fertility of foreign born women varied markedly according 

 to their nationality. This may be seen by consulting the follow- 

 ing table giving the average number of children per each wife of 

 foreign extraction: 



